Friday, March 8, 2013

There's No Hangover with Yoga.

Every morning on my way to the studio I pass by a local bar and I have made a guessing game of sorts out of how many cars will be in the parking lot left over from the night before. The other morning it was four. My first thought is usually, well I am glad they had the common sense, or someone they were with, not to drive home in an inebriated condition. But then my second thought is what is going on in their lives that they had to get there in the first place. Some days the same care is still there, staying there for days waiting for the owner to come get it. What are they doing that they couldn't come back the next day.

If I am sounding somewhat judgmental, I don't mean to be. Just curious as to what path they are on that has taken them to this point.

I never was a big drinker, I was what you called a cheap drunk. One glass of wine and I was done for the night. But the hangover would last longer than the buzz. I remember one of my first teachers told me the only reason he tired yoga was because someone told him he could get a "high" from it.

Can you get a high from yoga, yep! If you googled "yoga buzz" you will come up with tons of information about it. It really does exist.

How does it work? You move and you breath, simple as that. Working the "outer body" you increase the circulation of the blood, bringing in needed nutrients with your inhales and releasing toxins with your exhales. With the postures you wring out the organs and strengthen and lengthen your muscles. You start to release the "issues that hide in our tissues". This magic just doesn't happen with a kick ass hot yoga class, it happens with the most gentlest forms of yoga.

On the website urbandictionary.com there is even a bonafide definition: "Yoga Buzz: the high or elated feeling upon completion of a focused hatha yoga or meditation practice. The sensation that arises upon connecting the oneness of the universe". Just reading that gets me a little loopy.

We all have drama and obstacles in our life that we need to deal with. With a chemical high when you come down the problems are still there and you haven't learned any coping mechanism. With a yoga high or buzz when and if you come out of it, you have learned that there is another way. After all yoga is a journey of self realization. So just don't put a band aid on your drama, hoping that you can drink it away. Give yoga a try and start to change your life for the better and of course....don't forget to breathe.